Dallas Observer Feature Story
Ring Ma Bell
When heavyweight Southwestern Bell gets into a brawl with AT&T at the Legislature, consumers-that's you-are the ones who get beat up
By Stuart Eskenazi
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It started with a lady in the clouds issuing you a challenge in a 30-second TV commercial. "As you look at your next phone bill," she said as dark billows moved rapidly across the sky behind her, "try and make sense out of the fact that it's more expensive to call within Texas than it is to call another state." The lady spoke indignantly as you lay supine on your sofa. "That's right," she said. "It costs more to call from Marfa to Midland than it does from Marfa to Honolulu." How can that be? you thought. "Southwestern Bell, GTE, and other local monopolies have no effective competition," she explained, "allowing them to set long-distance access rates that are among the highest in the country." You didn't know an access rate from a prime rate, but you were galled at Southwestern Bell. And she was glad.
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